Wigan Warriors off-season signing impresses against former club as Matt Peet hails impact of bench

The Australian centre has been ever-present for the Warriors this season, and scored his fourth try of the campaign against Catalans Dragons alongside points from Luke Thompson, Harry Smith, Liam Farrell and Abbas Miski at the DW Stadium.

Keighran made his most carries in a game against Steve McNamara’s Dragons, an area of improvement the 27-year-old has been working on according to his head coach.

He also impressed with a strong defensive display as the reigning Super League champions bounced back from their defeat to Hull KR at Craven Park.

“I thought Adam Keighran probably had his best performance since he joined,” Peet admitted.

“I thought he carried the ball a little bit more than he has been doing, which is something he has set his targets on - his work rate out of yardage.

“I thought defensively, he was very strong and I thought he took his try well.

“Right from the start of the game, he made contact on a kick chase and you could see he was at it.”

The 40-year-old head coach was also impressed by the impact of his interchange bench that included Kruise Leeming, Patrick Mago, Tyler Dupree and Ethan Havard.

Wigan had found themselves 8-0 down as Arthur Mourgue opened the scoring through a penalty conversion before Julian Bousquet scored the game’s first try under the sticks.

But five unanswered tries – all converted by Smith – saw the Warriors pick up the two Super League points on offer during Round 10.

“It’s a strength of ours at the moment and it’s going to need to be,” Peet said of his interchange bench.

“There’s a lot of competition for places in and around the 21-man squad.

“Sam Walters is going to want to apply pressure there as well.

“I thought Kruise came on and changed the tempo of the game.

"Patrick did the same, he’s getting deeper into the minutes now because he’s doing a lot of little things right and he looks good.”